Living in a Cereal World

Well, no, not really. But I keep telling people I can eat cream cheese if it's baked, so I had to back that up eventually. I found this  Cream Cheese-Filled Ginger-Cherry Pumpkin Bread  last week and knew immediately that I had to make this for my visiting brother. I will say off the bat, based on my results, if you have (or can find) a 10-inch loaf pan you should probably use that. Mine got a little squished when I flipped it out of the (9-in.) pan--it might have needed to cook a little longer. I should really invest in some wooden skewers to use as testers. A few adjustments I had to make: I omitted the fresh ginger because nobody else loves it like I do (and I think it would have taken this pumpkin bread over-the-top in a good way), and I don't like dried cherries so I substituted dried cranberries. This is a dense, literally heavy bread and really makes a better dessert than breakfast, but, you know, eat it as you will. Also, it took me an hour, what with the batter prep...

There must be a near-infinite number of ways to prepare chicken. At least in one's lifetime. So here's another one:  Spicy Basil Chicken . I actually found this by accident; I was just looking for different ways to prepare snow peas when I came across the other parts of the recipe. The recipe gives you the option of omitting the spice (chili sauce) altogether, so I did. I've always had a sensitive stomach, and my aging parents can't eat like they used to, either. I also didn't want to buy fish sauce just for this recipe but I intend to get around to it--I'm pretty sure I have enough recipes now to justify that purchase. But for a soy sauce-based alternative, the chicken was pretty good. I would never have thought of basil as a complimentary herb. It's like two different flavor worlds, you know? And the rice on it's own was too strong of a citrus burst; you really need to have a little bit of everything in every bite. I admire chefs--even magazine chefs...

I know I'm not crazy. I've seen a new Kashi bagged granola in the organic section of a local grocery store and again the other day at Target. One was chocolate and the other was a chia-berry thingy. I wasn't really paying attention because we had a house issue consuming my mind all weekend, but I know I'm not making this up. I'll keep looking for online evidence. But while I'm here, a brief mention of  Rice Pilaf with Cranberries . Now that I have a wild rice blend , of course I'm going to use it. Just keep in mind that it takes 45 minutes to cook and prep accordingly (the extra ten minutes of steaming was just enough to cook the onions, almonds, and cranberries).

My sister keeps me up-to-date on all the latest English muffin news, informing me the other day that Thomas' has a pumpkin spice English muffin out now. I have yet to see it around here but I will be buying that one. ******* And now for the non-breakfast part of this entry. I'm still trying to finish this bag of bulgur and found this recipe for  Bulgur-Mushroom Stovetop Pilaf  in my very first binder from five years ago (when I was only collecting recipes, not making them). Every time I make something with bulgur my mother insists she doesn't like it, but she'll eat anything with feta on or in it. The mushrooms and peppers didn't hurt either. This was also the first time I'd ever bought wild rice--which reminds me, I need to find more uses for it. The apple juice only works, I think, because of the sweet peppers; otherwise, everything about the flavor would be off. I also conveniently didn't mention the usage of apple juice in this dish and nobody else ...

(We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog entry for this important announcement: Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. 2014 AL East Champions!! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Now back to Living in a Cereal World.) So, after the last--and first--time I  stuffed peppers  I was primed to try it again. Enter this convenient recipe from People magazine:  Spinach and Meat Stuffed Peppers . I wasn't sure how filling it would be so I made the full meat mixture but only stuffed four pepper halves. I had only a little bit leftover. If you spread this out over eight pepper halves you might be able to eat two but I don't know your eaters. I don't think this recipe would have worked if it was all pork (not enough flavor) or all beef (you'd get that feeling of a wad of meat sitting in the pit of your stomach). The two meats together provided a nice balance. And none of the combination of peppers, tomato sauce, spinach or Parmesan cheese was upsetting to anyone's delicate natur...

A rarity: my dad actually had a birthday dinner request--crab cakes. I have so many binders full of recipes now that it was easy to say, hey, I have a crab cake recipe I want to try. Namely,  this one : Maryland-Style Wheat Germ Crab Cakes. Of course my mother turned up her nose at the idea of wheat germ in and coating her crab cakes, but I usually just ignore her objections. She almost always (with the exception of quinoa--boo) changes her tune after sampling the final product. Here's the secret to wheat germ: it really doesn't taste like anything. Seriously, it might as well be bread crumbs. Which is the purpose it serves in these crab cakes. As for the flavor, at first I thought oh, what a bright, fresh, lemony-herb flavor. Then the Old Bay sneaks in on the back of your tongue (or whichever part of your tongue tastes "spicy"). In short, they were delicious, and the leftovers were even better as sandwiches.

Yeah, I went back and bought it. And then I ate some Monday. Hey, the mornings are getting cooler. I think I'll be having tea next week. Anyway, to the oatmeal. There's fewer packets but more in them. They call for 2/3 of a cup of water instead of the usual 1/2. I ate two packets anyway because I was hungry and it's, you know, oatmeal. Tearing into the packet was like ripping open a canister of pumpkin pie spice. It smelled familiar and enticing. The finished product dialed the flavor down a notch, though. I don't know why. Too much water, maybe? And I was surprised it wasn't more pumpkin-colored like the  Archer Farms  version I had a few years ago. But maybe that's a good thing, no artificial coloring. Still, it could've been more pumpkin-y. Of course, nothing tops  making it myself , so I'll have to try that again the next time I have leftover canned pumpkin.

Well, it's close enough, anyway, so I made my dad  Apple Crisp Pancakes  yesterday. One of these days I should ask him what he actually wants, but he's still getting his cake, so, whatever. I don't usually make pancakes with Bisquick because some people in this family claimed not to like Bisquick pancakes (we've always been an Aunt Jemima family as far as I can remember). At least until last month when they changed their tune: "I'll eat Bisquick pancakes in a pinch." "I'll eat them in one of your recipes." And I'm on an apple kick this month anyway, so that fell into place. First off, Bisquick pancakes are filling. Sooo  filling. I made one of mine too big and couldn't finish it. As it was, we could've fed at least two more people. I'll have to remember to eat some of the leftovers. But back to the pancakes: even that quick bit of heat broke the apple chunks down enough to not flare up my allergies. And the streusel fillin...

I'm sure you've noticed in stores. Step aside, back to school sales, it's time to shove pumpkin down our throats. Okay, I'm not really  complaining; I look forward to these flavors (I may have over-peached myself last month), just not necessarily the marketing. I noticed an end-aisle display of a new Quaker Pumpkin Spice instant oatmeal the other day. I may have to go back to the store and get one. And I've already had Thomas' Apple Pie english muffins. I couldn't help myself. Also, my sister recommended it. But she also recommended topping them with chocolate peanut butter. Ehh...that sounds too complicated for my palate. Knock yourselves out, though.